Peregrine’s fraud went undetected in two U.S. agency reviews

A third review in 2011 didn't take place due to limited resources...

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission reviewed operations at Peregrine Financial Group Inc. at least twice since 2006 without detecting the fraud that led to the collapse of the futures broker and a $200 million shortfall in client funds.

The Washington-based agency conducted examinations at Peregrine in 2007 and 2008, according to a list of CFTC reviews obtained through a public records request. The list, which includes reviews between 2006 and Nov. 9, 2011, does not detail what records or procedures examiners evaluated.

A third review was listed in 2011. A CFTC official said the 2011 exam was scheduled to oversee compliance with foreign exchange regulations but didn’t take place because of limited resources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the agency was still reviewing the matter.

Peregrine is under investigation after Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Russell Wasendorf Sr. attempted suicide. Wasendorf had written a signed statement that he committed fraud for two decades at his Cedar Falls, Iowa-based company, according to a criminal complaint.

‘System Failed’

“Although we do not yet know the full facts of what happened in this matter, the system failed to protect the customers of Peregrine,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said in testimony at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing today. “Just like the local police cannot prevent all bank robberies, however, market regulators cannot prevent all financial fraud. But nonetheless, we all must do better.”

Gensler told reporters after the hearing that the agency will review the CFTC’s documents from 2007 and 2008, and “pull those files to see how we can do this better.”

The CFTC sued Peregrine over the shortfall on July 10, less than a year after being scolded for poor oversight following the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd., which left an estimated $1.6 billion gap in customer funds.

Lapses in federal oversight have triggered a political backlash from U.S lawmakers and others. The Securities and Exchange Commission is still working to restore its reputation after failing to detect Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, which came to light in 2008.

Gensler has said that the CFTC relies on industry-funded self-regulators -- including the National Futures Association and CME Group Inc. -- to conduct routine oversight of futures firms, in part because its $205 million budget is inadequate.

’Examine the Examiners’

“They’re the front-line regulators and we oversee them,” Gensler said at the hearing today. “I do think we need to do more and review that relationship to make sure we’re doing the right things at the CFTC when we examine the examiners, so to speak, to ensure their audits are full.”

The CFTC will review NFA’s self-regulatory responsibilities, Gensler said at the agriculture hearing. Gensler said the “investors here atPeregrine got let down.”

The futures association said last week that Peregrine’s chairman may have falsified bank records after only $5 million was found in an account that was reported to have $225 million in June.

Although day-to-day oversight is handled by the NFA, the CFTC retains the legal power to conduct direct oversight when it chooses. The agency used that power to conduct 146 reviews of futures brokers during the nearly six years included in the public records request.

“I’m losing faith in self-regulation unless there is adequate, tight oversight by the agencies we fund,” Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said at the agriculture hearing.